El Cajon Councilmember Gary Kendrick announced Monday that he left the Republican Party and registered as a member of the Democratic Party, citing deep concern over recent immigration enforcement.
“Today’s Republican Party is no longer grounded in the economic or personal well-being of the people that I swore an oath to serve,” Kendrick said. “We’re a city of 70 different ethnic groups, and we all get along really well, and I want to keep it that way.”
He was the longest-serving Republican in municipal office in San Diego County before making the decision to switch parties. He has served on the El Cajon City Council as a registered Republican for 24 years.
Kendrick said he found himself splitting with the GOP on a variety of issues in recent years, with immigration enforcement being the most important.
“I cannot ignore the Republican Party’s betrayal of our immigrant community, nor its disastrous impacts on the people of El Cajon,” Kendrick said.
A year ago, the City Council passed a resolution brought forward by Mayor Bill Wells that asserted the city’s commitment to comply with enforcement of federal immigration law, including a designation that El Cajon is not a sanctuary city. Kendrick and Councilmember Michelle Metschel were the two votes against the resolution.
Prior to that, the council had also debated a whether El Cajon police should cooperate with ICE, a proposal which Kendrick had also disavowed.
The passage of the resolution and the uptick in immigration enforcement nationwide has instilled a sense of fear in the East County city, Kendrick said. “A lot of people are afraid to go to El Cajon.”
“I’ve seen the Republican Party be overtaken by MAGA extremists,” Kendrick said, noting that he had “tried his best to fix the party from within.”
However, Wells contended that immigration enforcement has not increased in El Cajon, which he said was primarily thanks to the city’s compliance with the federal government.
He called Kendrick’s party switch “disengenious” and said it misaligned with his constituency, noting that, “El Cajon is one of the few bastions of conservative thought in San Diego County.”
Kendrick was elected to the City Council in 2022 with support from 85% of voters. Despite switching parties, Kendrick said he is confident he will be re-elected in November.
“Councilmember Kendrick’s change in party affiliation comes at a moment of heightened concern over fear-driven political rhetoric and policies that have raised safety concerns for local residents, particularly around immigration enforcement,” the San Diego County Democratic Party said in a statement.
The group alluded to the 2026 midterm elections, noting that the Democratic party plans to “invest heavily in neighborhoods that have recently trended toward the right, but are historically Democratic strongholds.”
Officials from the San Diego County Republican Party could not be reached for comment.
“For some time, I held out hope that the Republican Party could be reformed from within. I believed that courageous men and women could stop the moral decay of the organization. However, Republican policies continue to tear apart El Cajon families, drive shoppers away from our businesses, and shield abusers from accountability. One thing has become clear to me: the Republican Party is beyond redemption,” he said.